Hirokazu Yasuhara’s Sonic 1 & 2 Development Talk Now Online

Hirokazu Yasuhara who was one of the original designers for Sonic 1 & 2 has recently been discussing a lot of early concept and development work which went into Sonic 1 & Sonic 2. Continue reading Hirokazu Yasuhara’s Sonic 1 & 2 Development Talk Now Online

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Sonic Boom RoL Once Had a Beautiful Hub

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmM28X7m_WA[/youtube]

Big Red Button developers have been busy again by recently uploading more test footage and concept art from Sonic’s last console outing Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric. In the above footage taken from Tuan Nguyen’s demo reel (with Skylanders footage cut, thanks to SSMB’s Blue Blood), we can see the scrapped beautiful hub world first seen in the GDC 2013 CryEngine 3 demo footage in a playable state.

https://vimeo.com/116913752
Devon Roderick has also released two test footage clips in the above video, one of a cutscene and one of an NPC.

Creepy Shadow

Onur Cayli has released a large amount of images showing character renders he worked on, including the rather creepy looking Shadow render you see above.

What do you think of these latest releases? Do you wish the beta hub made it to the final product? Speak out in the comments.

Sources: Tuan Nguyen’s demo reel, Devon Broderick’s demo reel and Onur Cayli’s portfolio

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Sonic Boom Was Once Called Sonic Synergy

sonicsynergy

We’ve talked a lot in the past about the development of Sonic Boom, since its release, former employees of Big Red Button have posted tons of early development material regarding it’s development which indicate it was once a much larger and very different game.

Bob Rafei

One such piece of evidence was a photograph taken inside Big Red Button showing what appeared to be an old logo for the game, however the name wasn’t quite clear and since then nobody has confirmed the name.

However, we now know what it is. Sonic Synergy was the original title for Sonic Boom, both the Wii U and 3DS version.

According to a website for Edward Moore who was a UX/UI design consultant for Sonic Boom, Boom was once entitled Sonic Synergy.

He describes his input on Boom as

High level User Experience & UI Design, Flash/Actionscript implementation for the majority of HUD elements, and Localization Production and Debugging.

Along with this are two UI diagrams for both the Wii U and 3DS version of Boom, these diagrams both contain the original Sonic Synergy title screen, as well as other early concept artwork for the game.

In addition to this, there’s evidence to suggest that Boom Sonic looked a lot different.

betaboomsonic

Sonic’s arms are back to being tan in colour, spikes are also different, much more like the Sega Sonic version. Amy also has some differences too.

What do you think? Sonic Synergy? Good title? Bad title? And Sonic’s alternative design? Like it, Hate it? Let us know in the comments.

To see the full sized images UI designs, check out the gallery below.

Source: Coroflot

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PSO: Blue Burst BETA Trial

Sonic Team are gearing up their Western release for the long-awaited PC version of Phantasy Star Online: Episode I & II, including a new “Episode IV” mode and a limited free trial.

The new version, subtitled “Blue Burst”, will be available for free trial download from May 10 on the official PSO:BB websites for SEGA Europe and SEGA America. The trial will allow players to get a feel of the PC version of Ragol, while offering 30 days of free online play.

Interestingly, SEGA will provide special quests for BETA players, perhaps in a way to trial every aspect of the game experience before releasing the final version in stores.

Continue reading PSO: Blue Burst BETA Trial

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Watch Sonic 2 Beta – Nick Arcade TV Clips Found

Who wants to know what Sonic 2 used to look like before it came out on store shelves? I know I certainly do! Well, one way is to read our review of the Sonic 2 Beta, but another way is by watching these cool videos from Nickelodeon TV in the 1990s, where kids were tasked with playing a beta version of Sonic 2 long before the game was finished. Continue reading Watch Sonic 2 Beta – Nick Arcade TV Clips Found

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Sonic the Hedgehog 2 BETA – Playing the Legend

Sonic 2 Beta. The image that sparked the biggest conspiracy in the Sonic community was a picture of a level select screen that no-one had seen before, found in the Official Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Guidebook. The booklet featured whole black and white maps to all the levels to the Mega Drive classic and included every cheat possible… Of course, there was one little thing that no-one could quite figure out. Continue reading Sonic the Hedgehog 2 BETA – Playing the Legend

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